>> The 24th annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) announced thewinners of the Golden Space Needle Awards on Sunday evening, with theaudience award for Best Feature Film going to Julia Sweeney’s “God SaidHa!” This film version of Sweeney’s one-woman show was her directorialdebut. Best Director went to Bill Condon for his film, “Gods andMonsters,” a biopic about “Frankenstein” director James Whale. StephenFry picked up the Best Actor award for his performance as infamous poetand iconoclast Oscar Wilde, which was the favorite of most audiences.The Best Actress award was predictably presented to Christina Ricci forher role in Don Roos’ “The Opposite of Sex.”

In addition to the audience awards, several special awards were given atSIFF this year. These winnners were the selection of special panels orcommittees whose members were chosen before the festival. The AmericanIndependent Filmmaker Award, sponsored by the Independent Film Channel,went to director John Shea’s “Southie.” The Washington State ScreenplayCompetition was won by Andre LeDoux for “Cat by the Road,” and the NewDirectors Showcase Award, given to the best new director, was won byValery Todorovsky for “Land of the Deaf,” with an honorable mentiongoing to Carine Adler “Under the Skin.” The Short Filmmaker Award,sponsored by Real Networks and Film.com, went to director Niklas Roy forhis film “Trigon.” As part of the Award, Roy will receive $1,000 fromFilm.com. The nominees and winner of this award are viewable on theFilm.com website.

>> The New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (The New Festival) handed outits awards on Sunday night, with the Best Feature Award going toFrancois Ozon’s “See the Sea” (“Regarde la Mer“) and Best DocumentaryAward going to Laurent Bocahut for “Woubi Dahling.” In addition, therewere two Special Mentions given out by the documentary jury, one for“Treyf” by Alisa Lebow & Cynthia Madansky and one for “Spicy Movie” byAlfred Ryf Triangeli. The Vito Russo Award, for completion funds, wentto Jocylyn Taylor for her film “A Taboo Series,” while the AudienceAward went to Angelina Maccarone’s “Everything Will Be Fine” (“AllesWird Gut“).

>> The 46th Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival will fetedirector Terry Gilliam as the subject of their annual retrospective. Thefestival recently issued a press release regarding the tribute,referring to Gilliam as “an independent, unorthodox and daringfilmmaker.” The retropective will consist of Gilliam’s animation work aswell as his feature films. As a member of the Monty Python comedytroupe, Gilliam created the animated shorts that filled their TV seriesand film work, and he also directed such films as: “Brazil,” “The FisherKing,” “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” “Time Bandits,” and “Fearand Loathing in Las Vegas.” He also co-directed, along with Python mateTerry Jones, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”